How is Othello presented in Act 1.

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How is Othello presented in Act 1

Othello is presented generally positively with some negative characteristics in Act 1. Before

we meet Othello in scenes two and three, we hear Iago and Roderigo talking about him,

although he is never referred to as 'Othello' but by such names such as 'The Moor' and

'Thick lips' which take away his identity creating a false image of the man we meet in the rest

of Act 1.

In scene one, Iago and Roderigo talk about Othello in an unfavourable way, naming

him as 'an old black ram'. Iago uses animal imagery when referring to Othello, he makes use of Othello's skin colour and the fact that he is different to the 'white Venetians' to make a link between black and evil. He provokes Desdemona's father, Brabantio, by conjuring up graphic animal images of Othello and Desdemona to make Brabantio angry with Othello. All this negativity gives us a very different view of Othello from the next two scenes. It is clear however that some Iago's comments are based on his jealousy of Othello as well as the man Othello